Kingston man charged with attempted murder in city shooting

Gunshot holes can be seen in an exterior wall of an apartment at the Stuyvesant Charter complex in Kingston on Tuesday.
Tania Barricklo — Daily Freeman

KINGSTON >> A Kingston man was charged with attempted murder Tuesday following a shooting that left another man wounded and caused stray shots to pierce an apartment wall.

Eric S. Harris, 24, of North Street, also was charged with felony counts of criminal use of a firearm and reckless endangerment, as well as possession of a weapon, a misdemeanor, police said. He was being held in the city lockup pending his arraignment in City Court.

The wounded man was identified only as a 20-year-old from the Kingston area. He was taken to Albany Medical Center for treatment, police said, but his condition was not provided.

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Kingston police said officers were notified about 1:50 a.m. Tuesday of shots possibly being fired in the area of Colonial Gardens apartments complex off Flatbush Avenue. Officers responded quickly and found the victim suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to the abdomen, police said.

They said the man was taken to HealthAlliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus in Kingston before being flown to Albany Medical Center.

Police said the investigation led to Harris and that detectives recovered a 9mm rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a “substantial amount of ammunition.” Harris used the shotgun in the shooting, police said.

Several shots fired during the incident struck a nearby apartment at 44 Sheehan Court, which is part of the Stuyvesant Charter complex, next door to Colonial Gardens. No one in the apartment was hit.

Shin-Ae Garfman, who lives in the apartment, said she was awoken by what sounded like a loud boom or small explosion in her home.

“It woke me right up because I was sleeping on my couch in the living room,” she said by phone Tuesday afternoon.

She said she immediately checked on her two sons, who were sleeping in a bedroom, and found they were fine. Garfman said she saw police officers outside the building a short time later but stayed inside. It wasn’t until a detective and another officer came to her apartment that she realized her home had been struck, she said.

Garfman said police found three holes in the wall under a window in the back room of her apartment, which is her bedroom. One of the shots went through the lid of a storage container, she said.

She said the room that was struck is next to the one where her sons, ages 6 and 10, were sleeping.

“It was basically one window away,” Garfman said. She said the boys slept through the whole incident.

Prior to the arrest being announced, Garfman said she hoped, for the victim’s sake and hers, that the shooter was found. She also said she planned to pursue charges against the shooter for endangering her family.

Chris Reilly, who lives next door to Garfman, said she heard one shot fired but thought it merely was a car backfiring. She said she later was told seven shots were fired.